AUBURN, Ala. — In the fourth quarter of the most tense and important football game Auburn has played since winning the 2010 national championship, head coach and renowned offensive guru Gus Malzahn estimates that he only called 50% of the plays. The rest came from a 30-year-old offensive coordinator who has literally been running Malzahn's unique no-huddle system since junior high.

The re-emergence of Auburn as a Southeastern Conference contender, punctuated by a dramatic 45-41 victory at Texas A&M last weekend, has been one of the college football season's most surprising developments. After going 3-9 last season under Gene Chizik and getting outscored 272-81 in conference games, the Tigers are 6-1 and have risen to No. 17 in the USA TODAY Coaches Poll with largely the same roster and a quarterback who was playing in Georgia's defensive secondary just two years ago.

Auburn's turnaround has reinforced that the school made the right call in firing Chizik and bringing back Malzahn, who left Auburn after the 2011 season to become head coach at Arkansas State. But it has also underlined the value of Malzahn's unique relationship with Rhett Lashlee, who was in seventh grade when Malzahn walked into his life at a tiny private school in northwest Arkansas.

"We think alike," Malzahn said this week in an interview with USA TODAY Sports. "He has played the position in our offense, and our offense is fairly unique. He knows it. He was the perfect fit for us right now. I've got a lot of confidence in him."

College football coaching has undergone something of a youth movement in recent years, with more schools now unafraid to give high-pressure jobs to less experienced prodigies. Among the notable success stories is Kliff Kingsbury, who ran Texas A&M's offense last season at age 33 and then took over as head coach at Texas Tech, which is a surprising 7-0.

Lashlee also is thriving in an environment where many would question whether someone who just turned 30 could withstand such responsibility, and he's doing so in a league where coordinators are both highly-paid and extremely visible.

"Age is a number, but we've got a great staff of guys to help me," Lashlee said. "The way the game's going, there's some need for energy and young guys who can relate to players and recruit players. At the same time, I've got 15 years of experience in our system."

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For all intents and purposes, Lashlee has been Malzahn's second brain since the early evolution of his system at Shiloh Christian in Springdale, Ark., running the no-huddle as an eighth-grader and then quarterbacking the school to two state titles. In Lashlee, Malzahn saw a player who not only could lead older teammates but someone who could run the offense with his mind more than his athletic ability,

"Even at 14, Rhett could read a defense and understand the details of routes and understand how to attack a defense, and you just don't see that at that age," said Chris Wood, then the offensive coordinator at Shiloh who has gone on to win two state titles as a high school coach in Arkansas. "They saw the game a lot alike and understood what they were trying to accomplish as an offensive unit, and (Malzahn) could really sit down with him and mold him."

Stalled by injuries and more talented players in front of him, Lashlee only played a handful of snaps at the University of Arkansas and began to think about a career in coaching. At the same time, Malzahn's star was just beginning to rise at Springdale High, where his team quarterbacked by Mitch Mustain rolled to a state championship in 2005.

When Houston Nutt hired Malzahn to be Arkansas' offensive coordinator the following year, Lashlee came along as a graduate assistant. And because he had also played for Nutt, he functioned as a liaison between the two.

After one tension-filled season, however, the philosophical divide was too great to overcome, prompting Malzahn's departure to Tulsa. The day he took the job, Lashlee made the two-hour drive with him, expecting to come along. That night, however, Lashlee got cold feet and, for reasons he still can't explain, decided to take his career in a different direction.

"I just didn't have a peace about it," he said. "He thought I was crazy, I thought I was crazy, my family thought I was crazy. It was a no-brainer opportunity and made perfect sense, but something wasn't sitting right. At that point, I figured I probably just threw away my coaching opportunity."

For the next two years, Lashlee went into business with his brother-in-law, publishing a high school sports magazine that was distributed throughout the state. And though working regular hours was healthy for his fledgling marriage, he knew after nine months he had to find a way to get back into coaching. That call finally came when Malzahn went to Auburn in 2009 and asked Lashlee to join him again as a low-paid graduate assistant.

"Even (during the championship year), he was a right-hand guy for me, and I relied on him a lot," Malzahn said.

Few took notice when Malzahn made Lashlee his offensive coordinator at Arkansas State, but putting a 30-year old in that seat at Auburn certainly raised eyebrows in the SEC, where patience with new coaching staffs is lower than it's ever been. For those who understood the relationship, however, it wasn't too soon to give Lashlee such a significant position.

"They've been together for so long, he literally can not only finish Gus' sentences, I'm sure he can finish a thought for Gus," said ESPN college basketball analyst Jimmy Dykes, who, as Shiloh Christian's athletics director, hired Malzahn in 1996. "Gus relies heavily on him because he knows he's the guy who sees it, thinks it and feels the game just like he does. But even going back to seventh grade, Rhett always had that 'it' factor as a player and as a leader, so I'm not shocked he's beyond his years as the youngest offensive coordinator in the SEC."

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And make no mistake: Though Malzahn gets credited with Auburn's offense, week-to-week it is very much a collaborative effort all the way down to the playcalling on Saturdays. Though Malzahn said the way he and Lashlee work together during a game is difficult to explain, there's a natural flow to how Lashlee will shuttle him information (they stand close together on the sidelines) and then take over stretches of playcalling depending on who is "in rhythm."

"I know what he likes and what he wants, and he knows how I think, so a lot of times things are unspoken," Lashlee said. "I don't overcomplicate it; it's just a relationship that works."

It's worked especially well for Auburn this season, where the offense is averaging 300 rushing yards and slowly giving more passing responsibility to quarterback Nick Marshall, who emerged as the starter from a four-man quarterback battle in the fall.

Whether this roll will continue is anyone's guess, even inside the Auburn football building. The Tigers are undoubtedly improved across the board, but they've also won four desperately close games. It's not impossible, however, to envision them winning their next four, setting up an Iron Bowl against No. 1 Alabama that would decide the winner of the SEC West.

Even the most optimistic projections for Malzahn never included such big goals in reach so quickly.

"When we first got here, they were a little beat down and we slowly have been able to grow their confidence," Lashlee said. "We've won different ways, but the biggest thing is our guys are learning to believe in themselves and they believe in each other. That's half the battle. If they think they can win, that's a big part of it."

Dan Wolken, a national college football reporter for USA TODAY Sports, is on Twitter @DanWolken.

THIS WEEK'S 10 BEST COLLEGE FOOTBALL GAMES

No. 18 Louisville (6-1, 2-1) at USF (2-4, 2-0), 12 p.m. ET, ESPN2: As Louisville looks to bounce back from its first loss of the season, USF has won its first two AAC games since starting 0-4. Somehow the Bulls are in the conference race and this game has some meaning. USA TODAY Sports

No. 15 Fresno State (6-0, 3-0) at San Diego State (3-3, 2-0), 10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2: The two teams leading the MWC's West Division square off, with the Aztecs having won three in a row after starting 0-3. Fresno looks to keep its BCS bowl hopes alive. USA TODAY Sports

Boise State (5-2) at BYU (5-2), 8 p.m. ET Friday, ESPN: BYU has beaten four strong teams in a row after starting 1-2, while Boise will try to find its footing without quarterback Joe Southwick, who broke his ankle. USA TODAY Sports

Texas (4-2, 3-0) at TCU (3-4, 1-3), 7:30 p.m. ET, FOX Sports 1: The Longhorns have eased the pressure on Mack Brown by winning their first three conference games, their last being the dominant win over Oklahoma. They come up against a TCU team that has only lost to teams currently ranked. USA TODAY Sports

Penn State (4-2, 1-1) at No. 4 Ohio State (7-0, 3-0), 8 p.m. ET, ABC: Penn State hasn't played since the intense 4OT win against Michigan, while the Buckeyes have ground out wins in their first three conference games. Braxton Miller looked stellar last week in the win against Iowa. USA TODAY Sports

No. 8 Stanford (6-1, 4-1) at Oregon State (6-1, 4-0), 10:30 p.m. ET, ESPN: Stanford got back into the top 10 a week after losing with all of last weekend's chaos. Meanwhile, Oregon State hasn't lost since the embarrassing loss to FCS Eastern Washington in Week 1. Are the Beavers a legit Pac-12 contender? USA TODAY Sports

No. 10 Texas Tech (7-0, 4-0) at No. 17 Oklahoma (6-1, 3-1), 3:30 p.m. ET, FOX: Kliff Kingsbury and the Red Raiders get their first real test, traveling to Norman to take on another major contender in the deep Big 12. This game kicks off the matchups between the conference's four ranked teams. USA TODAY Sports

No. 20 South Carolina (5-2, 3-2) at No. 5 Missouri (7-0, 3-0), 7 p.m. ET, ESPN: After beating Georgia and Florida, Missouri can claim the the tiebreaker over the SEC East's final big dog. The Gamecocks look to bounce back from last week's disappointing loss to Tennessee and stay in the division race. USA TODAY Sports

No. 12 UCLA (5-1, 2-1) at No. 2 Oregon (7-0, 4-0), 7 p.m. ET, ESPN: After losing its first game last week at Stanford, UCLA heads north again to give Oregon a run for its money. Brett Hundley will need to have a much better outing in Eugene than he did last week if the Bruins hope to have a chance. USA TODAY Sports